Guillotine is a nice little card game for 2-5 players. The setup is quick, the rules are simple, and a variety of strategies can lead to success.
As a queue of nobles marches toward the guillotine, players take turns decapitating the first noble in line. Before a player takes a noble’s head, they are given the opportunity to rearrange the queue slightly, aiming to claim high profile heads (such as Robespierre), stick their opponents with heads that will harm their reputation (such as a martyr) and spin the crowd so that the heads they have taken are worth more.
Basic stats
| Name | GuillotineWikiP/BGGeek |
|---|---|
| Players | 2-5, we played with 3, 4, and 5 |
| Playing time | 30 min according to box, 90 min actual |
| Age range | 12+ according to box |
Player reviews
- Jack
- I enjoyed this game. It is fun to play without much strategy, but if you want to win you have to plan a bit. I particularly encourage the house rule, Coiffeur in which the player who captures the aforementioned glorious head wins the moral victory. I like the senseless struggle for the soldiers, since if any one player starts collecting them, they simply flat out win (quadratic point growth), but as long as everyone is trying for them they don’t end up mattering. The art is great, and the captions encourage funny commentary. The cardboard guillotine included in our (Wizards of the Coast) version was an insult to engineering and thinking; it was designed more poorly than edible toilet paper.
- Kathryn
- …
- Michael
- …
- Brett
- …
Expansions and house rules
When you take a head, you must smirk and speak in an outrageous french accent.
Other formats and other reviews
Online version available at GameTable online (non-free). Apparently the Amiga/german edition came with a decent looking guillotine.